In celebration of Reuben and the Dark’s arrival at the top of the charts (Friday saw the band’s new single “Heart in Two” take the number one spot in the CBC’s national countdown), here’s Laurie Sarkadi’s profile of band member Shea Alain, first published September 8, 2015: Good thing Shea Alain’s dad never suggested he
Cigarettes hang from the lips of dozens of denim- and leather-clad bikers as they roll their way up the hill from Old Town in the opening scenes of an amateur video documenting the Northern Breed Motorcycle Club’s 1983 rally. The motley parade ends at the Sandpits – the site of annual club parties that offered
With less than three weeks until a chainsaw ceremonially bursts through the Snow Castle’s frozen outer wall, opening the door to Snow King’s kingdom for the month of March, the build team is on schedule, pouring snow and cutting ice on a bright, frigid Wednesday afternoon. “It’s getting to a point where we’re starting to
A sneak peek, from the upcoming February/March issue of the print edition of EDGE YK magazine: On a windblown outcrop on the east side of Yellowknife Bay, there once stood a Dene fishing village. When prospectors arrived in the 1920s and ‘30s, it was deserted. Mud and stone hearths marked the cabins, with copper trade
People sure knew how to have a good time back when Mary Jane Cazon was growing up on the land with her parents near Wrigley in the early ‘60s. Families and friends who’d been long separated would reunite in spring at camps down by the Mackenzie River, to set up camp, fish, tan hides, pick
“When we imagine the future, we never think of native people.” Growing up in Fort Smith, Travis Mercredi says he always saw the future as synonymous with cities, not the “rural Indigenous North.” For those around him, reconciling their traditions with modernity was a constant struggle. “My family, growing up, everyone was reading science fiction
“This is one of those things on the bucket list.” A counsellor at Aurora College’s Thebacha campus in Fort Smith, Grant Paziuk admits his acting experience is limited to a high school English class reenactment of Who Has Seen the Wind? many decades ago. Though his stage skills might be rusty, he’s still hoping to
When Pig Girl, the award-winning play based on the Robert Pickton murders, first hit the stage in Edmonton in 2013, it incensed the Indigenous community. Written by a non-Indigenous woman and performed by non-Indigenous actors, its initial run resulted in calls for a boycott. Now more than two years later, the controversial play has been workshopped and
“It feels like we are running out of time,” says Morris Neyelle. The community leader, grandfather, photographer and historian from Deline is speaking calmly about the often gloomy predictions of his community’s legendary prophet and spiritual leader, Ehtseo (grandfather) Louis Ayah. “When prophecies become fulfilled, the prophecies that Ayah had given to people, it feels like
An inch-and-a-half off the ground, the Dettah ice road is a bustling hive of industry and adventure. Hovercrafts zip across the ice, dog sleds mush over the bumpy snow, helicopters buzz through the air. At least that’s how it seems if you’re following Yellowknifer Danna Merrigan on Twitter. Almost every day since the ice road
If you’ve been a steadfast fan of the cinematically rich reality show Ice Lake Rebels over the past two seasons, you will be disappointed to discover that it hasn’t been renewed for a third. If you’re a real-life houseboater in Yellowknife, you’re probably relieved. The series “follows a handful of renegade houseboaters as they hunt
Sometime between 1936 and 1938, a young photography enthusiast named Leonard Willing arrived in Yellowknife. Gold had been discovered in the area only a few years before and the mining town was booming. Willing worked at both Negus and Con mines as a lab technician and travelled the territory as a prospector. In the evenings, he
This city has been welcoming people dispossessed by war and crisis for decades. Cody Punter asks some of them to tell us how and why they ended up here. Portraits By Angela Gzowski
Vi Beck at the races, 1981. Vi was one of Yellowknife’s driving forces for many years and is remembered by many for her hard work in the community. Unfortunately, Vi passed away in 2002.
